The invention is based on an electronic passport as is described, for example, in US 2003/0168514 A1. The passport described therein possesses the format of a passport booklet into whose cover is inserted an RFID device with a chip to record data and an antenna as interface to the exterior world. The described passport may be machine-read without direct contact.
A method for fully automatic performance of specified checks may be taken from JP 05-035935 using a passport that contains non-volatile memory that may be read electronically. The check includes a comparison between image information taken of the passport holder and image information read from the passport. Based on checking information read from the non-volatile memory, the authenticity of the passport is further established. In connection with this check, checking information may also be recorded in the passport. The advantage to this procedure is that a human checker need not be present. However, the proposed steps cause a high degree of data-processing expense that acts against rapid performance.
EP 1 170 705 A2 discloses a fully automatic admission system that is particularly suited to processing of flight passengers, in which information from a passport booklet is used in order to first determine the identity of the traveler, and second to check the legitimacy of the passport. Personal identity checking is performed by means of a data-processing based comparison of a photograph of a traveler taken by an automatic camera to a photograph taken from the image in the passport. To check passport legitimacy, machine-readable data located in the passport are read and compared with a “black list.” The proposed system obviates the physical presence of verifying personnel at an entry system. However, it operates relatively slowly due to the conversion of photographs to data, which is necessary twice, or requires a very high-performance, and thus expensive, data-processing system. Total removal of verifying personnel from the monitoring process is ever more undesirable for security reasons. This particularly applies for border crossings. The proposed system is not suited for an arrangement that includes the physical presence of a verifying person because of its relatively slow operating speed.
From DE 199 61 403 C2, a method is known for the monitoring of persons by means of checking an electronic entitlement passport in the form of a Smart Card that contains formal and biometric personal data. A person being checked with this system is directed through two corrals. In the first corral, the Smart Card and the personal data are checked for validity. In the second corral, biometric characteristics of the person that are the basis for the biometric data are checked. Verification of personal data occurs under cryptographic protection using so-called MACs (Message Authentication Code). The method allows accelerated automatic processing of checks of persons.